Mandarin Mondays: 搅拌机

For our 4th anniversary, Nate wanted to get me something that I would use a lot. I told him that the thing I didn't have here yet that thought I would use the most would be a blender (jiǎo bàn jī, 搅拌机).Well he didn't want to pick out a blender for me by himself, so we went to Walmart together. I listened to the obligatory employees standing around the blender aisle trying to explain to me why such and such a blender was better other blenders. Well, I am sure I missed out on much of the sales pitch, but I did understand that the one, which had "three cups" (sān ge bēi, 三个杯), was supposed to be far superior to the jiǎo bàn jī with only one cup" (yī ge bēi, 一个杯). And something about this one's knives (dāo,刀) were better than that one's. Mostly I heard a whole lot of "this" (zhè ge, 这个) and "that" (nà gè, 那个). And of course, they highly recommended the most expensive product.

Literally stir mix machine

We figured that buying the cheapest one was asking for it to break within a week, so we ended up deciding on the mid-price model that had the "three cups" (sān ge bēi, 三个杯) and three blades. Now, if you want to purchase any electronics, you have to do so right there in that department, so we checked out there. The man gave us a regular old receipt that looks very similar to the ones in America, except for all of the characters of course, and we went downstairs to do the rest of our shopping.

However, Nate had learned in class recently that these common receipts that they give you at Walmart (and many other stores and restaurants here (some shops don't give out receipts at all)) are called shōu jù (收据), and they are not real receipts, and you can't use them to return an item. The official receipts are called fā piào (发票).  I am not really quite sure why they give fake ones, except to save money. You see, in order to print out a fā piào, the shop must pay the government to rubber stamp it, so they avoid a small fee by handing out shōu jù to the masses. You can get a fā piào, but you have to take your shōu jù to a special customer service desk.

Top: shōu jù, Bottom: fā piào

We decided to try to get a fā piào for the first time, since we wanted to be sure to have the option of returning the blender if it didn't work or ceased to function very quickly (which is extremely common here). So we headed over to the service desk and waited for a while. Then someone cuts in front of us with their own shōu jù, and finally he gets his fā piào, and we get our fā piào.
 

Mulberry Smoothie

The blender (jiǎo bàn jī, 搅拌机) has been working quite well so far, and now we can make lots more lemonade and smoothies and even make our own powdered sugar. But we'll be sure to hang on to our fā piào for the full 90 warranty period, just in case. Oh, and Nate also got me beautiful lilies, not just a blender for our anniversary, and I love both gifts and my husband infinitely more.

Family Friday: A Happy 4th Anniversary!

On 7-7-7 Nathan and Anna were married. Since then, counting any place we stayed at about a month or more, we have moved roughly 10 times (distances from 1 mile, to 1,000 miles, to 10,000 miles). We also have two amazing boys now. First, we reduced ourselves by half (2 = 1), and now we have doubled our number (2 + 2 = 4).

Yesterday, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We chose to stay home rather than dealing with the hassle of going out and walking or riding a bus quite a ways to someplace nicer than KFC. I made homemade lasagna and Chocolate Chip Brownie Cheesecake. I gave Nate a traditional 4th anniversary gift of fruit (chocolate covered strawberries). Nate gave me a modern gift of a blender and some beautiful lilies (much nicer than geraniums).

We had a quiet evening at home and watched our wedding videos. Aaron couldn't quite get over that the grandmas were singing before they were grandmas and grandpa was talking before he was a grandpa, but both boys love to watch our wedding with us.

We want to thank everyone who took part in our wedding and our lives. We continue to grow more in love and look forward to what He will do in our future.